Debazi

Debazi
Language family	Leyen-Mangellian
Early form(s)	Classical Munkai, Deraban
Writing system	Debazi script Latin script
Official status
Spoken in	Rauratoshan
Speaker
Demonym	Debazasri
Technical information
Language code	DBZ

Debazi ([ˈdeˈbad͡zij]) is a Leyen-Mangellian language. It is a minority language in Rauratoshan.

Phonology

Consonants and vowels in Debazi are broken up into three classes: plain, light, and dark. Generally speaking, light consonants are palatalized while dark consonants are velarized, and light vowels are raised and/or fronted while dark vowels are lowered and/or backed.

A light consonant causes the next vowel to become light. A dark consonant causes the next vowel to become dark. Nasals and the trill /r/ are always considered plain. Approximants are considered light if they are labial or alveolar, and dark if they are velar or guttural; these also mutate the vowel preceding them, but only if that vowel is plain.

The phonemicity of the sounds of Debazi is under debate. Generally, light vowels can only follow light consonants and dark vowels can only follow dark consonants, but Debazi has recently lost some of the contexts which caused light and dark vowels. In some sense, all listed vowels in the below table are phonemic. However, as they can still be analyzed as sequences of /jV/ and /wV/, Debazi is usually considered to only either have all consonants in the table or all vowels in the table, not both.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

			Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Guttural
Nasal		short	m	n	ŋ
		long	mː	nː	ŋː
Stop	plain	unvoiced	p	t	k	(q)
		voiced	b	d	g
	light	unvoiced	pʲ~pɥ̊~ps	ts	cç
		voiced	bʲ~bɥ~bz	dz	ɟʝ
	dark	unvoiced	pʼ	tʼ	kʼ	(ʔ)
		voiced	ɓ	ɗ	(ɠ)
Fricative	plain		f	s	x	χ
	light		fʲ~ɥ̊	sʲ~ɕ	xʲ~ç
	dark		fʷ~ʍ	sʷ	xʷ~ɸ~ʍ
Approximant	plain		ɥ	j	w	(ʕ)
	lateral			l	ʟ
Trill				r

Notes

• [ɠ] has merged with [ɗ], and is not phonemically distinct across Debazi. However, it is still written as [ɠ] by many Debazasri writers, and so is usually included in phoneme tables.
• /ʔ ʕ/ are marginally phonemic as they usually are absorbed to form a dark vowel or ejective.
  • /q/ is the result of /ʔj/, however, it causes a plain vowel, not a light one.
• Initial /j ɥ w/ are also usually absorbed to create an initial light or dark vowel, but they usually are not absorbed in medial or final position.
• /χ/ technically has light and dark versions, but they are merged with the ones for /x/.
• /q χ/ both can cause dark vowels to occur, which results in them sometimes being called dark consonants. However, since neither are or come from velarized consonants, and usually vowels that aren't close remain plain, they are considered plain consonants by this page.
• [ps bz] are hypercorrections only present in some dialects of Debazi; [pɥ̊ bɥ] are more popular allophones of light /p b/.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front			Central			Back
	light	plain	dark	light	plain	dark	light	plain	dark
Close	iː	i	ɨ				y	u	uː
Close-mid	iɪ	e	ʌ				ø	o	uʊ
Open-mid	eɛ	ɛ	ɜ	ɘ	ɜ	ɵ	ɜ	ɔ	oɔ
Open				æ	a	ɒ

Notes

• Light front vowels and dark back vowels are only raised if they were the result of /j/ or /w/ respectively. They do not lengthen in this position.

Orthography

Main article: Debazi orthography

Debazi has two scripts: the native logosyllabary, and a romanization. Below is the romanization for Debazi.

Consonants

Characters with two representations in the below table use the first one in onset position, and the second one in coda position.

Consonant phonemes

			Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Guttural
Nasal		short	m	n	ŋ
		long	mm	nn	nŋ
Stop	plain	unvoiced	p	t	k	q
		voiced	b	d	g
	light	unvoiced	py/ps	c	ky/kh
		voiced	by/bs	z	gy/gh
	dark	unvoiced	pʼ	tʼ	kʼ	ʼ
		voiced	b’	rʼ
Fricative	plain		f	s	h	x
	light		fy/ff	sy/sh	hy/ch
	dark		fw/ƕ	sw/ss	wh
Approximant	plain		ȝ	y	w	‘
	lateral			l	lw/ll
Trill				r

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	è	à	ò
Open		a

Notes

• Light and dark vowels are usually contextually conditioned, so do not have their own orthography. If needed, stick a w or ‘ before the vowel for dark, or a y or ’ after the vowel for light.